Embodiments of the inventive concept relate to a semiconductor device and a method of fabricating the same, and in particular, to a semiconductor memory device and a method of fabricating the same.
Highly integrated semiconductor memory devices have increased in demand with the development of electronic industry. The integration density of semiconductor memory devices can be a factor that may influence the cost of the semiconductor memory devices. That is, if the integration density of the semiconductor memory devices increases, the cost of the semiconductor memory devices may be lowered. The integration density of semiconductor memory devices, such as planar semiconductor memory devices, may be mainly determined by a planar area that a unit memory cell occupies. Accordingly, the integration density of the planar semiconductor memory devices may be affected by, for example, a technology for forming fine and small patterns. However, realizing fine patterns in the planar semiconductor memory devices may result in increasing manufacturing costs and/or high priced apparatuses. Therefore, there may be some limitations in forming the small and fine patterns.
Recently, three dimensional semiconductor devices, including memory cells arranged in a three dimensional array, have been proposed to overcome the above limitations. Nevertheless, new processes which are capable of reducing bit cost and realizing reliable products are still required for successful mass production of the three dimensional semiconductor memory devices.